Research

CSI meets Earth Sciences

By Kelly Foss

Dr. Elliott Burden, a professor of Earth Sciences, is currently
working with a piece of equipment most commonly found in police
forensic analysis labs, or featured on hit shows like CSI, to look
for zombie fossils.

At a new CREAIT laboratory managed by Helen Gillespie, this
$200,000 microscope with attached fluorescence analyzer was
purchased through Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and
Petroleum Research Atlantic Canada as an “experimental
pre-commercialization item.”

While many of these microscopes exist across the country, only
two are currently being used for geological applications.

Having worked with the technology in the past, Dr. Burden said
that advances in computers and software have meant this piece of
equipment now has real potential for commercial application in
geological studies. The science behind his experiments involves
taking material – be it modern or ancient – and putting
it under the microscope where it is hit with ultraviolet light. As
with black lights at parties, many objects fluoresce in different
colours. The computer then measures the spectrum of light given off
by the material to determine physical and chemical properties.

“The common dogma is that whatever you find in the fossil
record actually belongs there,” said Dr. Burden.
“That’s not entirely true. What happens is sometimes
fossils get recycled – old fossils end up getting mixed with
other younger fossils. These old fossils are facetiously called
zombies; the dead have come back from their graves.

“Without a fluorescence microscope, you can’t easily
tell which fossil doesn’t belong,” he added.
“With this instrument, the zombies give off one colour and
the fossils that belong to those deposits give off another. I can
now separate out assemblages of fossils that belong to a rock, and
ignore the ones that don’t belong there.”

The microscope allows Dr. Burden to more precisely understand
the age of the rock, how deeply buried it may have been, and
whether hydrocarbons may have formed or not. These details are very
important to the oil industry.

“With this microscope, you can easily see the basic rock
lithology that forms oil,” he said. “You can go into a
sample and identify all the bits and pieces of material that
generate oil. The microscope provides a very powerful image for
geologists to see and to analyze.

“In terms of geological uses, we’re really at the
cutting edge of science,” he said. “I came here 26
years ago with the intent of doing this. I had the basic pieces
then but I didn’t have sensitive photometers and powerful
desktop computers needed to make it work. Now we’re trying to
figure out what we can do to commercialize it, and how we can
promote it to a larger audience.”

He says the microscope can also be used to identify particular
minerals in rocks, as they too will give off distinctive spectral
signatures.

“The sense of discovery is tremendous because nobody has
really explored where we can extend geological applications,”
said Dr. Burden. “We’re just scratching the
surface.”